Page 364 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

A History of Lace 357

Empire, Spanish (Moorish) and Italian silks and silk fabrics and threads for
needlework, and Italian lace. Since fabrics indicated class distinctions and
were strictly regulated by sumptuary laws, the embellishment of shirts and
shifts became a particularly important detail; a rich merchant could show off
by wearing a more elaborate lace than an impoverished scion of the nobility.
The lace and designs of this era are generally designated by their Italian
names: lacis (filet), punto tagliato (cutwork), etc. Although filet-work is now
considered to be only a crude form of lace, it must have been innovative and
fashionable in the mid C16th, for in Bronzino's portrait of Agnolo di Cosimo
Turi, the part of her shift showing above her bodice is made entirely of lace
with a diamond mesh. From the names in use at the time, it is thought to
be a darned lacis, and the design is consistent with this style of work. (While
the design is also consistent with the style of Torchon lace, there would have
been difficulties in the construction of the shift which make the possibility less
likely.)
More frequently recorded are the techniques of cutwork and reticella. In
the former, a design is drawn upon linen in such a way that the elements of
the pattern are solid, with spaces defining the background.The edges of the
pattern are bound by buttonhole stitches packed close (and sometimes padded
to give relief), threads are laid connecting the spaces of the background and
buttonholed (half-hitched) over, and then the linen in the background is cut
away. This proved so popular a style of lace that in England Queen Mary
Tudor issued a decree forbidding the wearing of `the lace commonly called
cutwerkes' to any person below the rank of baron. Reticella followed logically
from cutwork: as more and more linen was cut away, it became necessary to
build up a lattice to hold the weave. Sometimes threads were withdrawn, the
remaining strands buttonholed over, and the squares then filled with a spider-
web of stitching; then it was seen to be simpler to lay a lattice of threads
directly on to a drawn parchment and working over the grid so formed. (The
squares of the grid gives this form of lace its name and its character.)
By the last quarter of the century, the lacemakers had realised that the
work could spring free from its reticulated lattice, and heraldic devices, mono-
grams, flora and fauna were all incorporated into the designs. Edges developed
little scallops, then pyramids of scallops, to give deep borders. Lace-making
was established as a highly specialized set of skills. Domestic accounts of 1586
show that the cost of 6 yards of fine lawn together with cutwork and gold lace
to make a ruff cost 60 shillings. [At this time, Shakespeare's hired actors drew
a basic weekly wage of 5 to 8 shillings.]
We know that bobbin lace was also in production by this time, for in
`Twelfth Night' this is mentioned as a group activity: `-the free maids who
sit i' the sun weaving their thread with bones.' In Germany, Barbara Uttmann
taught lacemaking and so founded a flourishing industry which gave employ-